open | she had an earthquake on her mind

[seismos]

It's rare that Toph goes anywhere by herself. It's not too hard to tell that she's blind; considering she moves slowly and generally has a hand against whatever wall or rail is available.

What isn't immediately obvious is that she's normally relatively belligerent and combative. If Toph bumps into you, or winds up somewhere that's not near food or a lounge chair, she'll pipe up with a squeaked "Sorry! I'm having a little trouble, here," or a practiced "Gosh, guess I got kinda lost again!"

But she may not always show that she's almost always distressed: wisecracks in place of a sometimes stubborn pout set into her face. At least the rails and piecemeal parts of the ship that are metal provide some amount of comfort, though it's certainly not enough to calm her down completely.

"Stupid oceans. Stupid ships. Stupid kidnappings!" Where's her Zuko-shaped taxi when she needs him? Probably off stuttering somewhere...

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[seismos]

At that, she lets him go and then grabs at the railing again.

"Hey-- I'm blind, not stupid." To any onlookers, it might seem like Toph's gazing out over the water looking for a horizon the way most new arrivals probably do. She's watching something, but it's nothing anyone else can see.

Zuko's heartbeat, steady as ever. Something that has come as a small surprise to Toph, considering the assumptions she'd absorbed about him from the start (not to mention his generally awkward demeanor as she learned it personally). It's not earth, but it's comforting. Almost makes her feel safer. The moment's important, a rare spell of quiet in the wake of an overwhelming situation.

[banishment]

He reaches for the railing again as she does, not for fear of toppling over the side, but in a silent gesture of trust and reassurance. Zuko has nothing to hide, and he knows how unsettling it must be for her to be surrounded by this much water without any land in sight. Metal was likely a temporary comfort, an extension of your bending that didn't quite make you feel as at home in your element as rolling around in the dirt did. Like bending the heat off of lava when you couldn't make the lava itself do a damned thing.

"Katara's here, too. Somewhere. I, uh, think she's below deck doing... girl or waterbender things."

It's not like he's been keeping track of her. (He has. In a non-stalker-ish way. He may or may not have some abandonment issues he hasn't worked through yet and fears being left behind.)

And speaking of Zuko's heartbeat...

[seismos]

Times when Toph really sounds like a girl: when she's screaming or laughing. Right now, she's giggling quietly in a high pitched and very tickled manner.

"Oh, really? You think?" Her head tilts upward to where Zuko's voice has been coming from, and her eyebrows quirk to help show off her taunting. "So? Are you going to take me to see her, or what?"

[banishment]

"Like I know where she is right now! Do you know how many decks things thing has?"

His heartbeat jumps again as he reaches out to cover one of her hands with his own, like pressing her palm more firmly into the metal will give her a better 'view' of the ship.

It's a luxury liner, and it's massive. Even he's been having trouble keeping the layout of the place straight, having spent the better part of last Tuesday lost somewhere near the bow of the ship before he found his way back to a corridor he recognized.

[seismos]

Another taunt bubbles up but before Toph can get it out, the structure of the ship slowly begins to unfold beneath her palm. Thin strands of compartmentalized metal that dives down further than she's expected into the water below.

She whistles, all thoughts of teasing Zuko about Katara washed away with the the new information she's processing.

"Are we going to land any time soon? Me and boats don't exactly get along, you know. Plus the sooner we get on land, the sooner I can help figure out what's going on."

[banishment]

She can't see it, but Zuko's frowning. The way his grip goes slack against the back of her hand is likely a tell for how much she isn't going to like his answer to that.

"I don't think there's any land out there to land on."

[seismos]

For a moment, Toph is just silent.

Then, she starts to laugh -- because that's a pretty funny joke and she totally communicates via pranks and hazing and Zuko is definitely joking because why wouldn't he be joking that is a very bizarre truth!

Why isn't Zuko laughing? "Oh, that's a good joke..." But seriously why isn't Zuko laughing? "It's a joke, right? Right, Sparky?"

Her fingers are starting to dig into that railing. There's definitely going to be a pair of child-sized hand marks left in it, permanently.

[banishment]

Yes, but that's assuming Zuko is both cunning and bold enough to pull pranks on people. And while he may be both, he's also too insecure in his own skin to dare and do so against people he's worked so hard to earn the trust of. Nevermind so awkward in spite of his bender's grace that he'd likely fumble and ruin the entire attempt.

"I don't joke." It's said dead pan serious, Zuko's fingers curling around her palm in a dangerous gambit to worm the tips under her hand to pry it off the metal before she rips the railing clean from ship's side.

[seismos]

"Yeah. I forgot you have all the sense of humor of boar-q-pine."

If she was kind of cranky before, Toph is outright irritated now. She knows that it could be worse -- at least she has Zuko around to help her out. She moves to lean against the railing she'd just mangled, aggressively crossing her arms over her chest in what she would deny is any form of pouting at all.

"So what am I supposed to do? There's only so much I can see through a wooden skeleton." Still pouting. Toph thinks she would rather be riding Appa; at least he could land.

Then her eyes light up, blank but bright as her head swivels up to where she'd last heard Zuko's voice. This is a look many have seen, and few survive with their ego intact.

[banishment]

Were it anyone else sassing him about his lack of a sense of humor, he would've sassed right on back. But this is Toph, and he gets it. There's too much water, no land in sight. She's an earthbender who is literally out of her element with only the metal on this ship for her to peer through and see in that way she's learned to without the use of working eyes. She's mad, and she has a right to be. He doesn't blame her, and he'd rather have her snapping at him than biting someone else's head off.

...or looking at him like that. He knows that look.

"You're about to remind me about burning your feet, aren't you?"

He's about to become a living palanquin, isn't he?